BT Bystrokhodny Tank - Fast Tank
Since the early 1930s, Soviet military doctrine has been built on the theory of Deep Operation. This theory was developed in the late 20s. Its author was Vladimir Kiriakovich Triandafillov, who in 1926–1931 was the head of the Operational Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters. The works of Triandafillov "The scope of operations of modern armies", 1926 and "The nature of operations of modern armies", 1929 became the theoretical basis of the pre-war construction not only and not so much Soviet, as German armed forces.
There, this theory was a logical addition to the German theory of the Lightning War. According to the strategy of blitzkrieg, tank units with the support of infantry break through into the enemy’s rear, bypassing and surrounding heavily fortified positions. Surrounded enemy formations that are experiencing difficulties with the supply of ammunition, equipment and foodstuffs are easily overwhelmed the advancing forces.
An important feature of the blitzkrieg is that the main forces of the enemy are not the main objectives of the offensive . After all, the battle with them gives the enemy the opportunity to use most of their military potential, and therefore, unnecessarily tighten the military operation . The priority task of the blitzkrieg isto deprive the enemy of the possibility to continue successful combat operations even while retaining manpower, equipment and ammunition. And for this it is necessary, first of all, to seize or destroy control systems, transport infrastructure, supply and transport hubs.
Under the theory of the Deep operation, the front military regulations were created, such as, for example, the Provisional Field Regulations 1936, the Red Army (PU-36), and the field regulations of PU-39 Under this theory, tank and airborne forces were created. However, the tanks of the late 20s under the theory of deep Operations did not fit in any way - their speed was too low, and the power reserve was very limited. To implement the theory of the Deep Operation, a completely different tank was required, and in 1932 such a tank entered service with the Red Army.
Several light wheeled / tracked tanks of the BT family (“High Speed Tank”) were developed. Within this family, several major projects were created, which were brought to mass production and operation of equipment by the troops, as well as several experimental machines and a number of auxiliary equipment. In the latter case, various construction units, various weapons, special equipment, etc. were used.
A revolutionary breakthrough in the design of tanks was carried out in the 1920s and 1930s by the owner of a private firm, the American engineer J. Walter Christie. The expression "Christie's tanks" then became synonymous with combat vehicles, the main quality of which was high speed. Christie was very hostile to the Communists, but money fully prevailed over principles.
The idea of a wheeled-tracked tank with high operational mobility. even to the detriment of other characteristics, was embodied in a number of experimental designs by Christie. The first car of this type, he built back in 1919, had only two wheel sets, and developed a speed of 11 km/h on tracks and 21 km/h on wheels. The change between tracks and wheels was made in 15 minutes. Numerous faults forced Christie to remake the machine. The new model of the model of 1921 received a sprung front pair of wheels and reinforced central bogies. The turret of the tank was missing the driver was placed under the armored cap, and the gun was mounted in the front hull plate. The US military leadership did not show much interest in these structures, and in 1926 Christie offered both versions of the tank to the Poles, however, also unsuccessfully.
Two years later, the talented inventor developed a new type of wheel-tracked chassis with eight rollers with an individual candle suspension. Although the speed of the TZ tank reached 74 km/h on wheels and 43 km/h on tracks, the US military also questioned this machine, ordering only 7 improved Christie tanks. Two more TZ tanks of the 1930 model were sold to the USSR, where they served as the basis for a whole family of BT machines.
The principal external difference in the TK from other tanks of that time was two elements: a long, narrow body with an elongated wedge-shaped nose and large rubberized rollers-wheels. The second ensured the simplicity and speed of the transition from a tracked to a wheeled one. But more important were the internal innovations: the suspension of the rollers ensured their very large vertical travel and the powerful engine created a high power supply to the tank.
Taken together, the Cristie machine provided a new dynamic property. When the tank entered the operational space and the opportunity arose to make a march along a good road, two tank crews could take off the tracks in thirty minutes and prepare the car for driving on wheels. In this case, the front rollers became guide wheels, two pairs of medium ones were lifted up, and the rear wheels turned into driving wheels. However, the high running performance of the TZ also had negative sides: the wear of the coarse-link tracked belts and the small volume of the tank's fighting compartment due to the placement of the suspension springs inside the hull.
Christie’s undoubted merit was that he was the first to embody in the tank the idea of a harmonious combination of his three basic qualities: mobility, firepower and security. The first to appreciate the invention of this talented designer were not his compatriots, but the engineers of the USSR, who started mass production of wheeled-tracked vehicles.
For many years in the historical literature devoted to the development of armored vehicles in the USSR, it was believed that the BT tank owed its appearance to the head of the UMM Red Army, I. Khalepsky, who, after getting acquainted with the combat vehicles of engineer U. Christie, remained “fascinated” by them and tried their best to promote in the series the construction of high-speed wheeled-tracked tanks. In fact, this statement is valid only for a small part.
The “Red Army Tank-Tractor Automotive Armor Equipment” (abbreviated as STAV), adopted in the summer of 1929, the approved plan under which armored forces in the coming years were to receive three types of tanks: - wheel-tracked wedge , intended for reconnaissance and surprise attack on an unprepared enemy; - a small tank , in modern terminology, belonged to the class of "light" and was intended to accompany infantry on the battlefield and operational breakthrough (there was a wish to make this type of machine floating) - maneuverable (medium) tank, its main task was to break through the defensive lines and consolidate the success achieved by light tanks. In 1930, the construction of the TG medium tank designed by German engineer E. Grotte became the favorite not only of I. Khalepsky, but also Voroshilov and Tukhachevsky.
In 1930 the Kharkiv Komintern Locomotive Plant, as a plant that had gained some experience in tank designing and manufacturing, received an especially important task - to begin the work on creating and organising production of a special fast tank which was needed by mechanised units of the Red Army. To render assistance and improve the management of the work on creating the first fast tank, N.M. Toskin, an experienced military engineer, was delegated to the bureau from the Administration of Mechanisation and Motorisation of the Red Army.
Work on the fast tank (designated the BT, Bystrokhodny Tank, lit. "fast moving tank" or "high-speed tank") outgrew the planned limits and transformed into a creative process of designing not only new components, but an entirely new layout of the vehicle. Its main design feature was the presence of wheel-and-track propeller so that the vehicle could run either on its wheels (on public roads) or tracks (during cross-country movement). All the work connected with the BT tank was being done under the leadership of N.M. Toskin.
In 1931, I.A. Khalepsky stated the following: “Considering that the Christie tank at its speed overlaps all the tanks in the world, that the Poles are going to build it, that if the Poles can start producing the Christie tank before us, we can get into a very unfavorable ratio in terms of the tactical use of tank units. ” Fears at the expense of Poland were fully justified - in the early 1930s. This country was one of the top three worst enemies of the USSR, which, among other things, had a fairly long border and a rather big tank fleet.
On June 6, 1931, I.A.Khalepsky approved a design task for a wheeled-tracked tank of the type of Christie, which weighs 14 tons, reserves 13-20 mm and has a speed of at least 40 km / h on tracks and 70 km / h - on wheels had to arm 37-mm and 76-mm cannons and two machine guns. And one gun and one machine gun were supposed to be installed in a rotating turret, and the rest - in the body. The crew of the car - at least 3 people. According to these requirements, the RKKA experimental design and test bureau under the direction of N. I. Dyrenkov, developed the project and built a full-size model of the D-38 tank. On November 18, 1931, the project was considered, but it was considered unsatisfactory.
The first tank called the OBT (experimental fast tank) was assembled late in September 1931. With some minor modifications introduced and final elaboration of the design completed, the tank was put into series production under the designation of the BT-2. On November 7, 1931 the first three production BT tanks took part in the military parade on the Red Square in Moscow.
As the problem of creating a fast tank had been solved, N.M. Toskin (as a regular military engineer) was summoned back to the Administration of Mechanisation and Motorisation of the Red Army to continue his service. On December 6, 1931 A.O. Firsov was appointed the Chief of the Tank Design Bureau.
BT was appreciated by the British. After visiting the Kiev maneuvers of 1936, in which hundreds of BT tanks took part, the British military department purchased one tank from Christie. On its basis, the A13 tank was created, which (in different versions) became the basis of the British tank forces. The development of the A13 became the famous British tanks "Cromwell" and "Crusader."
On June 1, 1941, in the tank units of the Red Army, there were 7,549 BT tanks of all modifications. Of this amount in the western border military districts there were 396 BT-2, 878 BT-5 and 3243 BT-7 and BT-7M. Their number in tank and motorized divisions, concentrated in border districts, ranged from a few to a hundred and fifty.
There is neither the possibility nor the sense to describe the fighting of all units and formations that were armed with BT tanks. Apparently, the reasons for the mass destruction of BT at the beginning of the war should be sought not in the constructive flaws of the machine, but in the general course of the fighting. Defective BTs rushed during retreat, damaged vehicles could not be restored, tank units did not receive ammunition and fuel. In such circumstances, not only BT, but also T-34 and KV, died en masse. During the heavy fighting in 1941 - the beginning of 1942, the BT was almost completely exterminated. By the middle of 1942 there was no mention of them.
For all the fighting, the weakest point was the complete absence of evacuation vehicles. Abandoned and damaged BT were readily restored by the enemy. So BT and fought against the Soviet troops. The Finns, moreover, released a small series of 114-mm self-propelled guns on the BT-7 chassis (BT-42). The last time BT went into battle during the Soviet-Japanese war in 1945. By that time, a number of these tanks had been preserved in the Far East, and they showed themselves well during the defeat of the Kwantung Army.
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